


Wolfgang's Spontaneous Road Trip Through Germany

by JennaCupcakes



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gratuitous German, Hurt/Comfort, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 20:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4680647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaCupcakes/pseuds/JennaCupcakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events at his uncle's villa, Wolfgang goes on the run.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolfgang's Spontaneous Road Trip Through Germany

A day after the events in Iceland, Wolfgang and Felix embark on one of the strangest road trips through Germany.

Wolfgang steals an ambulance, because Jonas is nothing if not inspiring, and he borrows one of those _Rotes Kreuz_ jackets, too, because Lito urged him to, but then he cuts the others off and just drives. Thank God for the lack of speed limits on the _Autobahn_. Wolfgang doesn’t give a rat’s ass about insurance.

He’s always hated going north, the roads just get progressively worse and the land gets flatter and flatter, and so they’re halfway out of Brandenburg and halfway into Sachsen when he decides that their first stop is going to be Leipzig. 

Wolfgang is astounded at how small the city feels, even though it’s a proper _city_ with just about half a million inhabitants. (He also knows, now, that this is nothing compared to Mexico City, Seoul or Bombay. It’s also small compared to Berlin.) He likes the narrow streets and _Jugendstil_ houses but can’t really enjoy any of it. He pins it down to his fear of his uncle’s men coming after him, but a tiny treacherous voice reminds him of the look on Kala’s face when she last saw him, and he knows he will have to face this voice sooner or later.

For now he just drives until he finds the hospital.

He has enough money to spare now that the doctors there will not ask any questions, German bureaucracy be damned. After all, anybody has a price, and money is just grease that keeps the wheels of bureaucracy spinning neatly. Wolfgang leaves to find a bar and gets drunk. 

* * *

The novelty of Leipzig wears off quickly. Wolfgang gets restless, and Felix doesn’t show signs of improving, so Wolfgang gets himself one of those T4 _Volkswagen_ vans, loads in Felix and gets on the road again. He almost makes it to Dresden before he gets tired of driving east, so he reconsiders and drives to Nürnberg.

He finds a good doctor there, and that makes it worth the drive and the unfamiliar accent of the south. Wolfgang has friends in Nürnberg, friends he grew up with but who left Berlin to go to university elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, there are people who actually manage to leave Berlin. Wolfgang is not yet sure he is one of them.

He gives them some half-assed story about taking a holiday for a road trip, doesn’t mention Felix, doesn’t mention the villa of his uncle halfway to Potsdam full of damning proof of what he did. He very nearly remembers Kala’s face. In that moment, he can actually feel the tug of his cluster like someone is pulling the thread of stitches still too fresh for comfort. He winces, and excuses himself from the conversation with his friends.

The doctors tell him that Felix is showing signs of recovery now, that his brain activity is promising and that he responds to more and more stimulus. Wolfgang feels like he’d jinx it if he left now. The doctors suggest transferring Felix to Frankfurt, and Wolfgang breathes in relief.

* * *

Frankfurt is smaller compared to Berlin, but takes itself so seriously that Wolfgang almost wants to get up and leave as soon as he gets there. If it weren’t for Felix he would, but the doctors seem competent enough and Wolfgang wants nothing more than for Felix to wake up. 

 It’s been two weeks since Iceland, and it’s getting awfully quiet around Wolfgang. He almost wishes he was back on the road again. He can’t hear the silence over the roaring of an engine, but he realises he is on the verge of turning his escape into an end on itself, and he’s not desperate enough to give in to that urge yet. Some part of him still believes he will return to Berlin.

* * *

It’s Nomi who finds him on the bank of the Main, and he doesn’t know why he looks at her and thinks she could have been his sister, but he does. Maybe it’s because he sees the same kind of mischief in her eyes that he and Felix used to share, a childish joy in bending the rules to turn the playing fields in their favour.

“The others are worried, you know,“ she says, and Wolfgang nods. It’s an early morning, there’s no one here except for the joggers and the odd dog owner. The air coming off the water is cool, and Wolfgang is somewhere between alert and so exhausted it’s hurting all of his senses. He only feels the concern of his cluster as an echo at the back of his mind, and even then he isn’t sure if any of that is directed at him. If they have any sense, it’s probably not.

“I’m trying to keep my trouble away from you as best I can,“ he says, and knows he should ask about Will, but that is a problem he can’t solve by running, and so he doesn’t dare.

“I’ve been keeping tabs on the situation with your uncle,“ Nomi says, and waves it off when Wolfgang tries to protest, “This is like reading a newspaper for me, and you wouldn’t tell us anything. So far, the authorities do not suspect you.“

“I’m not worried about the authorities,“ Wolfgang says. His uncle had friends, friends Wolfgang can’t all kill, although he’d probably try if presented with a target. He doesn’t say that out loud, but then again, he doesn’t have to.

“Do you have a plan?“ Nomi asks, and Wolfgang is grateful that she doesn’t try to lecture him. Sometimes he looks at her and wished life had been easier on the both of them.

“Keep driving,“ he says, “See where it takes me.“

It’s not much of a plan, but it keeps him up, keeps him moving, and right now he can’t afford to be tied down. But looking at Nomi he knows that the floodgates have been opened now, by letting just one of them in, and the worries are eating away at him and he has to ask. 

“What about Will?“

Nomi doesn’t show any sign of satisfaction about the fact that he finally asked. Maybe it’s not a victory for the others, this small concession of emotion from Wolfgang, because there’s nothing to give or take between them.

“What about him.“ 

Nomi sighs. Wolfgang is worried.

“That bad, huh?“

“Jonas has been avoiding me,“ she says, “I have a feeling he always felt more comfortable around Will, because Will was willing to listen to him show off, and now that he’s…“

She trails off, swallowing visibly and then letting her gaze fall on the river and the skyline beyond. Wolfgang follows her line of sight, and then finds himself trying to think of something to say that is not the minefield of their current situation, some fun fact about the city he’s in. He doesn’t want to let her go, the steady sensible presence at the back of his mind who could have been his sister in another life. Is his sister now, in another sort of way.

“That’s the Paulskirche, over there,“ he says, pointing to a building with a green roof just barely visible behind the houses on the other side of the river, “In 1848 Germany had its first attempt at unity and democracy in there.“

He scoffs. “Didn’t go over so well.“

That’s the only one of the buildings he can name, because he did a school presentation on it once, and he always thought Frankfurt to be bland in that sort of way where it was just a city that was not Berlin, but was trying really hard to be. He stays here with Nomi, looking over the river until his phone rings with news from the hospital. As he leaves, he is more aware of the presence of his cluster than before.

* * *

 Felix is reacting to the medication, and not in a good way. Felix’s kidneys are failing. Felix’s body can’t handle the heavy medication on top of trying to recover on its own. Felix is wired to a kidney dialysis. 

Wolfgang can’t find words to tell the doctor, doesn’t know the words that will make them work faster. He remembers Steiner telling him how many things can go wrong in a hospital, and thinks it would be the worst kind of irony if those words came true now. 

He stays in Frankfurt, by Felix’s bedside, hoping and waiting, for nine days. The steady beep of machinery is almost calming. He wants to ask Kala about Felix’s chances of recovery, but talks himself out of it. She’s a pharmacist, not a doctor, he tells himself, and tries to ignore the fact that several people in his head just groaned in frustration. They should have better things to do than worry about his love life. The part he thinks is Kala is suspiciously quiet.

* * *

 The doctors don’t know how, but Felix pulls through. His condition stabilises, and Wolfgang goes out again for the first time in ten days, to the hostel room he paid for, to take a shower and decide on their further path. He thinks Hamburg is nice this time of year.

* * *

 Hamburg is not nice this time of year. It’s windy, cold, and raining almost continuously, even though they’re not that close to the coast. Wolfgang spends most of his time in the private rehab center he managed to secure a spot in for Felix. He has Nomi’s hacking and his own still inexhaustible cash supplies to thank for that. 

He doesn’t like this city’s closeness to the sea, everything always feels like it will be swept away by the next storm flooding the drains and rivers. To him, the people are stoic, closed and uptight, or maybe it’s just his bad mood he is projecting onto other people. Worst of all, this city is not Berlin.

Worst of all, Kala finds him here. 

“Why are you shutting us out?“ she asks. He looks at her and is at loss for words again, she is at the market right now and he is standing next to her in front of the fruit stall while also facing her next to the iron railing on a bridge somewhere in the _Speicherstadt_. He hates himself a little bit for relaxing into the warmth of Bombay.

“Kala, I’m…“

He wants to say _I’m sorry_ but he’s not, because he doesn’t know what he should be sorry for except the fact that he can’t say he regret what he did. He wanted to protect them, wanted to protect Felix, but he can’t deny the satisfaction he felt at finally bringing his past to an end. It had been long coming, but he regrets having the others caught up in this.

“You were scaring us! Nomi said you weren’t sleeping properly!“

His sleeping schedule had indeed been irregular while he’d been with Felix in the hospital. He guesses it’s only fair when Felix is sleeping for so long, but he also knows he is punishing himself for something he couldn’t have rightfully known.

Hamburg on this morning is bright and sunny and sharp. Bombay is warm and soft and golden. 

“I was trying to keep away from you. For your own protection!“

He realises this sounds feeble, sounds patronising, even, but he’s only halfway to caring. He wants to take Kala’s hand, though.

Kala doesn’t reprimand him for the comment, though, and that makes him feel worse than if she had been angry. He knows he’s doing wrong by her. He needs to step back and reevaluate.

“Where are you right now?“ she asks, her way of diplomacy, her way of steering the conversation towards another topic that is a little less dangerous, a little less prone to explosion than anything else Wolfgang usually handles.

“Hamburg,“ he says, and looks around again. He barely knows anything about this city, except that it’s mostly cold and at least five people have tried to sell him tickets for one or the other musical. He’s not sure why they thought he would be the type for a musical.

“It looks nice,“ Kala says, looking out from the bridge down the long canals between the high houses, “It’s so wide. There’s a lot of space.“

Yes, Hamburg leaves too much space open, too much space to think and breathe. That’s what unsettles Wolfgang.

“I’m sorry,“ Wolfgang says suddenly, quickly, to get the words out before they evade him again. Kala is still looking at the water of the canal, and he feels safe for a moment but of course her head snaps around then and she looks at him. She isn’t just soft forgiveness, he reminds himself, and right now she is hurt.

“Just don’t leave us like this again,“ she says.

He nods, lips pressed together tightly. He wants to say that he won’t, not ever, because right now, here in Hamburg and Bombay, with the warmth of the Indian city on his back and a cold wind from the water in a Northern German town he feels perfectly at peace, but he is so afraid he might do something impulsive and hurt them again. So he doesn’t promise anything in the first place.

“Do you want to walk with me for a bit?“ he asks. Kala nods, he doesn’t take her hand but wants to, and they walk down to the harbour and look at the boats. There are still things he wants to say and apologise for, but now is not the time. There will be other times. Right now, Kala is here and he doesn’t feel like running so badly.

* * *

 It’s six weeks after Iceland. Wolfgang is packing for a trip up to the Danish coast. He receives a call from the hospital. Felix woke up. 

 


End file.
